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Don’t you sometimes wish you could just wave a magic wand and the obstacle in front of you would disappear? Well, sometimes, even without divine intervention, there are ways to achieve a meaningful goal with virtually no effort on your part.

Saving for retirement is one of those situations that doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult, especially if you have many years ahead of you.

Here’s how:

Enroll in your 401(k) through payroll deduction.

The best benefit of a payroll deduction plan like a 401(k) is that the funds come out out of your paycheck before it even hits your account.

Once funds show up in a bank account, it’s tempting to spend them. If they come out before you ever see them, you don’t miss them. Because of this “pay-yourself-first” quality, a 401(k) is an excellent investment savings accumulator.

Set your plan to “auto-escalation.”

This means your participation percentage will automatically increase each year. For example, if you are saving 6% of your paycheck into your 401(k) this year, next year it will go up to 7% automatically, and so on. Your contribution will increase each year until it reaches a maximum you designate or the maximum your plan allows.

Instead of reacting to short-term market news by changing the allocation of your money, make it easy and invest in “autopilot” funds. -date retirement funds, popular in defined contribution plans such as your 401(k), set up their investment allocation based on when you plan on using the money — your target retirement date.

Vanguard Target Date funds explain it like this, “The funds’ managers shift each fund’s asset allocation to fewer stocks and more bonds so the funds become more conservative as you get closer to retirement.” What could be simpler than that?

With pretty much zero effort, you can get a solid start to funding your retirement. No magic wand required.